The driver of the No. 18 Skittles/Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry muscled his way to the lead on a late restart and held off the No. 22 of Joey Logano to take the checkered flag at lap 164.

It was Kyle’s 33rd career Sprint Cup victory, his fourth of the season and first at Indianapolis. Kyle has now won four out of the last five races, with Indianapolis being just his ninth start of the season after returning from injury.

The win was Toyota’s first at Indianapolis. The manufacturer now has a win at all active Sprint Cup Series racetracks.

Kyle also won the Xfinity Series race on Saturday.

“I might have found my happy place, I don’t know,” Kyle said. “Nothing better than being in victory lane, nothing better than being in victory lane for one of the biggest wins in my career here at Indy and sweeping the weekend – even bigger yet.”

Everybody knows the cycle: You get a new phone and are amazed by its battery life. But as time goes on, you become less and less excited.

At Interstate Batteries, we understand your relationship with your phone is one of deep, emotional intimacy. And when your phone just won’t hold its charge any more, it can be a traumatic experience.

That’s why we consulted a few experts who helped us craft the 6 Psychological Stages of Phone Battery Death. Where are you on this path?Need a new cellphone battery, laptop battery or battery for any other portable device? Click on over to InterstateBatteries.com or visit your local Interstate All Battery Center and break the cycle of battery fear.

Fifteen of Interstate Batteries team members recently returned from a venture to Timisoara, Romania, to work with the “LIFE Romania” ministry at their summer camp. Members from Dallas, Urbandale, and Minneapolis united, many meeting each other for the first time, to work and play together with the common purpose of enriching the lives of the Romanian children.

The trip was full of fun and excitement. Rumor has it Mary Kyle Hendon, a project office coordinator in our Dallas office, received a proposal with a 14-carat candy ring pop as her enticement. She’s decided to remain friends with her 8-year old suitor, Sebi. Age difference, you know.

Marketing Specialist -Rachel Cannon- taught the kids one of her favorite games, “Pterodactyl,” but after several attempts to engage them, she realized they weren’t getting it. Once she found a suitable translation of Deeno-saur, though, the kids went wild with it.

The trip was a great success, according to Adam Bowman, the associate chaplain. He shared how receptive the children were despite the language barrier, and how wonderful it was to see them accepting Christ as their savior.

This made the long journey from home well worth it. Each member was able to share their Servant’s Hearts with Love as a Team to the children of Timisoara.

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, continued his incredible comeback from early season injuries that caused him to miss the first 11 races of the season with a win in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Kyle has now won back-to-back races after his win last week in Kentucky, and he has won three of the last four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races starting with his victory in Sonoma. He is now just 58 points out of 30th-place in the standings to secure his spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.

“This is such an awesome win and such an awesome comeback,” Kyle said. “I just can’t say enough about everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, the work that they’ve put in. Our cars are a lot better than what they were last year. It’s so much fun to win these races and to win with this group of guys – Adam Stevens (crew chief) and this bunch, all my pit crew since 2008, they deserve all this. Can’t say enough about Interstate Batteries – happy birthday, Norm Miller – and M&M’s Crispy, Toyota, Sprint. This Camry was awesome today.”

Some fortunate timing and an incredible move on the racetrack put Kyle in position to win. He pitted under green at lap 244 when he believed that his right-front tire was flat. The green-flag pit stop caused him to lose one lap to the leaders and fall to 20th in the running order.

Determined to get back to the front, Kyle quickly put himself in the “lucky dog” position to get his lap back should the caution flag wave. But with talk of a potential caution, he boldly passed both the second-place car of Brad Keselowski and leader Kevin Harvick to get his lap back just moments before the yellow waved at lap 252 for oil on the track. That move would change the outcome of the race.

While the leaders pitted following the caution flag, Busch resumed the lead on lap 253, and he never looked back. Busch led the final 49 laps and brought home another win that again bolstered his Chase hopes.

After winning two of the last three races, Kyle Busch is hungry for more. Copyright 2015 Autostock Images.

And along the way, Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, has certainly lived up to Interstate’s slogan of “Outrageously Dependable,” winning two of the last three Sprint Cup races. He’ll look to add another as the series heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon for Sunday’s New Hampshire 301.

Busch added his second win of the season Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta and is looking for more at a place where he has seen success before. He brought home his first New Hampshire victory in July 2006, a win that came in dominating fashion in which he led 107 laps. That gave the Las Vegas native plenty of confidence that he could get multiple wins at the “Magic Mile” over the rest of his career, and his next chance comes this weekend.

Objects in mirror may be faster than they appear. Copyright 2014 Autostock Images.

Despite numerous strong runs at New Hampshire in the 17 Sprint Cup starts there since his 2006 victory, none have ended with a celebration in victory lane for Busch. The driver of the Interstate Batteries Toyota has posted five top-five finishes in those 17 starts, including two runner-up finishes in his last three starts there. In all, Busch has seven top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 20 starts at New Hampshire.

Busch is coming off two particularly strong seasons at the New England track – second-place finishes in both 2013 Sprint Cup races along with second- and eighth-place finishes, respectively, in the 2014 stops. Outside the Sprint Cup ranks, Busch has four wins, one pole and six top-five results in nine NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Loudon to go with three wins, one pole and six top-10s in seven NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races.

Last July, Kyle started from the pole at New Hampshire and finished second. Copyright 2014 Autostock Images

Busch has only seven Sprint Cup starts thus far in 2015 since returning from injury in May at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. After two wins in the last three weeks, the next order of business is New Hampshire as he looks to continue his march toward a berth in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship playoffs. His two wins would normally lock Busch into the Chase, but he still must finish the regular season in the top-30 in the driver standings in order to be eligible. He was granted a Chase exemption after missing the first 11 races of the season while recovering from injuries suffered at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in February. With his two wins in-hand, including the maximum 48 points scored Saturday night at Kentucky, Busch’s gap to 30th-place Cole Whitt in the driver standings is down to 87 points with eight regular-season races remaining.

So, as NASCAR’s top series heads to New Hampshire for Sunday’s New Hampshire 301, Busch will look to continue his hot streak in front of the many Interstate Batteries distributors and dealers across New England.

“Loudon is a Martinsville-like short track but it’s just over a mile. It’s a little more spread out, but there’s some rooting and gouging going on because it’s a one-lane track and everybody fights for that particular groove. To be fast at Loudon, you have to have good brakes and you have to roll the center really well and get that good forward bite off the corners and make sure it sticks. The biggest thing about Loudon is, you keep losing front turn and that’s why the brakes go away, just because the corners are longer and more sweeping that you need to keep those front tires around you.”

If you won at Loudon again, what would you do with the lobster the track gives each Sprint Cup winner?

“I haven’t won at Loudon since they’ve been giving away lobsters so, if I won there again, I don’t know what I would do with it. Samantha (Busch, wife) says that we should put it back in its natural habitat. We’ve been so close there recently so, if we were able to get it done, we’ll worry about that Lobster part later. Taking another trophy home from there would be pretty cool. We have a lot of Interstate Batteries dealers and distributers up in that part of the country, so it would be great if we were able to get the opportunity to be able to have them come celebrate with us in victory lane.”

Kyle prepares for a practice run at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2014. Copyright 2014 Autostock Images

How important was it to get the points deficit to the top-30 down to double digits? In other words, how important was it to break through that century mark and give yourself a shot with eight races to get it done?

“Obviously, it’s on our mind but I’m not thinking about the points gained when we win. When we win, I know we did all we can do. That’s awesome. And it is what it is. They lie wherever they lie. It’s more of the 17th -place finish at Daytona and you know that those other guys can have decent finishes at those places, as well. So, because it’s just such an unknown that you kind of look at the points and you’re, like, ‘OK, how many did I gain – I think I only gained six or seven or something last week on the top-30.’ But this week was a good week. So that’s what matters most, for us to go out there and perform, and perform at our best at the level that we know how to do, and that’s what I’ve said since I came back. If we do everything right and do it the way we know we can, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to average a 14th-place finish, or whatever it’s going to be so I can be in the Chase, be in the top-30. And now with two wins, man, I never would have imagined we would have gotten two wins this fast. But I’ve got a great team and they have done a really good job. Well, when I won at Sonoma, it was like my 11th-best track of the 13 or 14 races I had left in the regular season after I came back. It was way down at the bottom, and Kentucky was probably one of my top-three. So, we have won at the top and the bottom of the list so far, so, not too shabby. Hopefully we can keep going.”

The New Hampshire race is one of the shortest on the circuit. How do you approach that race knowing you might have a little less time to get to the front at the end?

“Essentially, at Loudon, you’re looking at how good your fuel mileage is and you have to look at when you have to make your last pit stop since that’s what everyone looks at. You end up running it almost like a road-course race because you do want to be the first guy on the last round of pit stops to pit. You want to get in there, get your tires and fuel, and then stay out the rest of the race and keep your track position since it’s so important there. It’s just a challenging race because it is so hard to pass there. You can’t be two-tenths faster than a guy and be able to pass him because everyone typically runs the same speed. You’ll have it where the leader might be a tenth better than the second-place guy, but everyone is separated by so little that it takes a mistake on someone’s part in order to pass them there.”

When you make a mistake at Loudon, does it cost you a little bit more because you have less time to recover?

“You don’t because you’re always on edge there. You’re trying to go as fast as you can into the corners, as deep as you can into the corners while rolling as much speed, or just a bit higher than everyone else so you are able to get back to the gas sooner. You’re going harder than everyone else in order to make the straightaway a little bit longer and get your momentum built back up. It’s definitely a challenging racetrack – not one of my best racetracks, I’ll admit that. I have won there in the past so, if we get a good car, I guess I’ll need to have a really good car, apparently. Then we might have a shot to win there.”

Saturday night’s win at the Quaker State 400 was Kyle’s 31st career Sprint Cup Series victory, his second of the season and second at Kentucky. He’s now won two out of the last three races, with Kentucky being just his seventh start of the season after returning from injury.

“It was fun; certainly when you have a great racecar like that, it makes it nothing but fun,” Kyle said. “(Crew chief) Adam Stevens and these guys gave me a great M&M’s Crispy Toyota Camry; it was really, really awesome.”

Watch the final laps below:

With the win and leading the most laps, Kyle scored the race-maximum 48 points, vaulting him closer to the top-30 in series points. Kyle must be in the top-30 in points with at least a win by Sept. 12 to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.

Kyle’s Team Interstate companions also performed well Saturday, finishing third, fourth and fifth. This marks the first time all four Team Interstate cars have placed within the top-five in the same race.

On February 21, 2015, Kyle Busch found himself in an unfamiliar spot – lying in hospital bed after suffering a broken right leg and left foot during an accident in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race that day at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

The winner of 29 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races wasn’t certain when his next victory would come. But just 127 days later and with a lot of hard work and rehabilitation in between, Busch found himself back in a familiar place – victory lane. The Las Vegas native had just won the Toyota/Save Mart 350k at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in dramatic fashion, passing six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and others after the final restart of the race to bring home one of, if not the, sweetest victory of his 11-year career.

So it’s only fitting that the driver of the No. 18 Interstate All Battery Center Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) reaches yet another hurdle – a return to Daytona for Sunday night’s traditional midsummer Coke Zero 400 Sprint Cup race. Not only will Busch look to get back on the track and put February’s bad memories behind him, he’ll hope to add yet another victory to his Daytona resume.

Kyle won the 2008 Coke Zero 400.

Busch is certainly no stranger to victory lane at the Coke Zero 400, having won the July 2008 race behind the wheel of – yes – the Interstate Batteries Toyota. The Las Vegas native has fared much better in his summer races at Daytona as the track is much more slick thanks to Florida’s July heat. He has four top-five finishes in his 10 July starts at Daytona and also scored his first career pole position at a restrictor-plate track there in July 2013.

While another victory Sunday night would be sweet for many reasons, Busch and the No. 18 All Battery Center Team will also be making a huge push toward qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs over the final 10 races remaining in NASCAR’s regular season. Busch has been given an exemption to make the 2015 Chase for the Sprint Cup and has now scored a requisite win. But he also must rally to make it within the top-30 in driver points during the next 10 races. Busch is 37th in the standings with 125 points, sitting 136 markers behind 30th-place Cole Whitt, so a strong finish Sunday night would be another points windfall in his quest to get himself into NASCAR’s playoffs, which start in September.

Busch rolls into Daytona with support from Interstate Batteries and its Interstate All Battery Center retail stores as the company continues its franchise expansion throughout the United States, Canada and Latin America. Interstate All Battery Centers, which provide “Every Battery for Every Need” with more than 16,000 portal power solutions for all household needs, are recognized as a top-50 franchisor by Franchise Business Review.

So as Busch heads back to Daytona in his Interstate All Battery Center green-and-white-striped ride Sunday night, he’ll know that having been able to accomplish what he did in just 127 days, the sky is the limit on what he and his team can accomplish the rest of the season.

While you haven’t been back to the track since, how do you think you’ll feel heading back to Daytona this weekend after everything that happened there in February?

“Daytona is not a place that I think owes me one or anything like that. It’s just that I want to be able to go back there and conquer it again one day, whether that’s this weekend or not. I’ve won races there in just about everything. I’ve won ARCA races, Camping World Truck races, Xfinity, and Sprint Cup points and non-points races there. I look forward to getting back there, though, and back on the racetrack. Hopefully one day we’re able to win a Daytona 500 and, of course, put all the rest of those bad memories in the rearview mirror. I would love nothing more than to get our Interstate All Battery Center Camry back to victory lane there.”

What makes the July Fourth weekend night race at Daytona so special?

“I think it’s cool to go to the night race at Daytona. I think it’s a bit hotter than it is at the beginning of the year and it gets to where the track is a little bit slicker. So you get that opportunity to where guys start mishandling a bit, and they start sliding around and you can actually make it a superspeedway race, but there’s more separation between cars than usual. You start passing people when guys are having to lift and get out of the gas, which makes that race really fun and enjoyable for us drivers to know that the better driver can prevail.”

Does the Sonoma win make going back to Daytona any easier from kind of a mental and emotional standpoint?

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t think the win has any effect on Daytona. I think Daytona is Daytona. We fly down there and we roll into that racetrack and, you know, it’s going to be different than any other time I’ve ever probably gone into that racetrack, no doubt. I don’t know what that’s going to be, yet. But I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to getting out there on the racetrack and attacking that demon, per se, and just being able to get out there and get back in the draft and get back in the pack and just work myself to having a good racecar for Sunday night. That’s going to be the thing – it’s another opportunity for us to win a race. Now, it’s an opportunity for everybody. Everybody goes there thinking they’ve got a chance to win that race, so we’re not just racing against three, four, five guys who have better road-course experience. When you go to Daytona, you’re racing against all 42 other guys and girls. It’s certainly going to be a challenge but let’s go get it. Why not?”

How feasible is making the Chase and can you kind of compare your outlook now compared to when you left Michigan two weeks ago?

“It’s certainly feasible. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be. This team is good enough to be that way, and I should be good enough to be that way. I certainly put us in a hole bigger than it should have been at Dover and at Michigan. Those were entirely just my fault, obviously, and I’ve got to be better than that. We can’t have any more of those. That’s obvious. But we’ve just got to be smart about how we race. Now, having a win, you know, obviously I think that makes things a little bit better. We don’t have to race as hard for a win. We don’t have to put ourselves in a bad spot when we’re running third, fourth or fifth to try to get that victory. We can run third, fourth or fifth and that’s a good day for us. That’ll be just fine. We just need to be able to do that, and I feel like Adam Stevens (crew chief) builds good enough racecars for me that I can do that with. Joe Gibbs Racing does. TRD builds good engines for us. So, I’ve got no worries on that front.”

Despite what you’ve been through there, how special is winning at Daytona?

“For us, you still want to win everywhere you go, every single week. To win at Daytona is always cool. It’s definitely special. It’s the birthplace of NASCAR – the superspeedway aspect of it. I definitely love going there. It’s hot, it’s slick, and you can make the most out of yourself as a driver and what you’ve got in the car. We won there in 2008 and I’m hoping we can get a win with our Interstate All Battery Center Camry this weekend.”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – While many will be traveling to this popular destination for their annual summer vacation this weekend, NASCAR drivers and teams will have a different mindset.

Daytona Beach is the site of NASCAR’s most famous track – Daytona International Speedway. At Daytona, the racing is not only intense, it’s unpredictable. But winning at Daytona comes with plenty of satisfaction for drivers who’ve added their names to the list of those who have hoisted a trophy at the facility known as the “World Center of Racing”.

David Ragan, driver of the No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in Saturday night’s Subway Firecracker 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series race, is one of those drivers on the list. It was this very weekend in 2011 when Ragan conquered the 2.5-mile tri-oval, marking his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win. The Unadilla, Georgia native outraced then-teammate Matt Kenseth in a thrilling green-white-checkered finish.

Ragan will be pulling double duty at Daytona this weekend, competing in the XFINITY Series for JGR in addition to his Sprint Cup ride in the No. 55 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. He’ll have JGR founding sponsor Interstate Batteries on his No. 20 Toyota Camry – a sponsor he’s familiar with from his time in the No. 18 Sprint Cup Camry earlier this year while he substituted for the injured Kyle Busch.

Ragan has a total of 105 starts in his nine-year XFINITY career highlighted by two wins, two poles, 17 top-fives and 48 top-10s. One of those two wins came at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway – another restrictor-plate track on the NASCAR circuit known for ultra-high-speed drafting much like Daytona.

Though Ragan has not yet seen quite the success in the XFINITY Series at Daytona like he has in his Sprint Cup career, he has earned four top-10s in his eight XFINITY starts at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. This weekend will be Ragan’s first XFINITY appearance this season, and he’ll be in good hands with the No. 20 Toyota team for JGR.

With first-year crew chief Mike Wheeler calling the shots atop the pit box, JGR’s No. 20 Toyota team has earned two wins already this season with drivers Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin. Ragan hopes the team’s momentum, combined with his success at restrictor-plate tracks, will produce not only a solid finish this weekend at Daytona, but perhaps a return trip for Ragan to victory lane.

David Ragan took the wheel of the Interstate Batteries Toyota for a couple of Sprint Cup Series races this season. Copyright 2015 Autostock Images

What are your thoughts on coming back and teaming up with Interstate Batteries and Joe Gibbs Racing again, this time in the XFINITY Series race Saturday night at Daytona?

“I’m ecstatic to come over and run the XFINITY Series race for Joe Gibbs Racing, and to have Interstate Batteries on our Toyota again is going to be a lot fun. I had a great experience working with all of those guys at Interstate Batteries for a couple of races when I was subbing for Kyle. Obviously, the XFINITY program over at JGR is as solid as their Sprint Cup program. For me, it’s a racetrack that I really enjoy running at. The No. 20 team has done a very nice job this year of being really competitive at a lot of different races. Excited about the chance to go down there and try to get a win on the XFINTY side. ”

What is it about Daytona that makes you so comfortable there?

“Daytona is just a lot of fun. The track races a lot differently than Talladega because handling does come into play a little bit more. It’s a bit difficult to pass, so you are forced to race a little bit harder earlier in the race just because the racetrack isn’t as wide and, certainly in the XFINTY race, you don’t have a lot of time to fall to the back or to play different strategies to recover from a mistake. It will be important to qualify well. Any racetrack that you’ve been to that you’ve been able to run well and had some success, you just have more confidence coming in. Anything can happen at Daytona and you know that going in. It’s just the risk that speedway racing presents. But I also know that, if we do our job and things fall the right way for us, we could be walking out of there with the trophy.”

With the record the No. 20 Interstate Batteries team has thus far this year, does that give you even more confidence about your chances Saturday night?

“Anytime you go to the XFINITY Series, or even when you run some Camping World Truck Series races, you want to get in equipment you can win with. For me, our Sunday jobs are the top priority and it’s tough because you have a lot of competition but, whenever you go to the XFINITY Series and have some fun, you go there for one reason only and that’s to win. Points don’t really matter and winning the pole doesn’t matter, although it makes it easier to start up front. It’s really all about taking home that checkered flag. It’s an honor to work with the JGR XFINITY team. They’ve done a nice job with all three cars this year. Hopefully, we’ll have some fun and get to race with Daniel (Suarez) and Erik (Jones) and be good teammates to those guys and it would be awesome to bring a checkered flag back home for Norm Miller and everyone at Interstate Batteries and their entire dealer and distributor network.”

Kyle missed the first 11 races of 2015 after breaking his right leg and left foot at Daytona International Speedway in February. In just his fifth race back, Kyle led twice for a total of 17 laps around Sonoma’s 10-turn, 1.99-mile road course in his M&M’s/Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry.

Kyle was running third when the caution flag waved with 11 laps to go. Crew Chief Adam Stevens wisely brought him down pit road for four fresh tires and fuel, putting him back out in seventh on the lap-103 restart. Kyle made some thrilling moves to take the lead with five laps to go.

“This is awesome. It’s unbelievable, Kyle said. “I can’t say enough about my team, everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. I can’t say enough about my medical team that got me back in shape and ready to go behind the wheel.”

Kyle’s brother, Kurt, finished second, marking the first time the brothers finished 1-2 in a Sprint Cup Series race.

Sunday’s win was the 30th of Kyle’s career, and it puts him in position to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship if he can get into the top 30 in points.

Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Series

Justin Barcia came out on top after a very muddy day at Budd’s Creek. Photos by Brown Dog Wilson.

Team Interstate’s Justin Barcia claimed his first career 450 Class victory at Budd’s Creek MX Park in Mechanicsville, Md.

23 – Weston Peick – 14th

46 – Phillip Nicoletti – 8th

51 – Justin Barcia – 1st

This Week

NASCAR: Daytona International Speedway (Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Interstate All Battery Center Toyota Camry on Sunday, July 5; David Ragan in the No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry on Saturday, July 4)

About The Outrageously Dependable Blog

Interstate Batteries® sells more than 16,000 kinds of batteries—from AA alkalines and automotive batteries to critical power solutions, and everything in between. Combine professional battery services, recycling programs and the largest battery distribution network in North America, and you’ll find Interstate has EVERY BATTERY FOR EVERY NEED®. Learn more about Interstate Batteries or shop online!